Ineligibility stuns autistic Mesa Community College student

William Kirwan, 24, knew it might take him longer than the average student to make it through Mesa Community College’s veterinary technician program.

But while he was working on program prerequisites, he never suspected it would be impossible for him to get in.

Diagnosed with autism at a young age, Kirwan has struggled with academics and communications skills for as long as he has been in school. He grew up in Gilbert and now lives in Phoenix, where he works part time as a clerk at the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center.

In an e-mail interview, Kirwan said he has always loved animals, has cared for family pets and wants a career making animals’ lives better. “I imagine putting scrubs on each morning and trying to save as many animals’ lives as I can,” he wrote.

Kirwan and his mother, Janet, a family-services specialist at Southwest Autism Research, were stunned when the MCC veterinary tech program recently informed them that Kirwan was ineligible. He has spent the past four years working toward admission.

He “would have never started this program to begin with had he and I known it had a competitive admission process,” Janet Kirwan said. “It appears that the college’s disability-services office did not know that either.”

MCC officials said the vet tech program started a competitive admissions process in 2009.

“It’s a competitive program that may be too demanding for William,” said Meredith Warner, MCC interim associate dean of student discipline and compliance. “He would be in there with all kinds of students getting A’s and his GPA is below that.”

Kirwan started taking vet tech prerequisites in 2008, a year before the program began its competitive admissions. Unaware of the policy change, he completed more than 20 credit hours in such classes as biology, chemistry, intermediate algebra and technical writing in expectation of getting into the program. His tuition was paid in part by state vocational-rehabilitation funds.

His mother said it was never a secret that her son had a disability. She said she went with him to a number of disability-services appointments at which he asked for and received help, including a note taker and additional time to finish tests.

The staff at “the disability office even helped us pick classes for William,” she said. “Sometimes they would tell us to pick one class over another because a particular instructor was tougher to work under. But they never told us he will never get into the (vet tech) program because he has C’s. He would have never started it had he known that.”

In addition, Kirwan failed a class called Introduction to Animal Science, which requires students to work in teams caring for animals in a campus clinic. His mother said neither of them realized that Kirwan did not understand his work schedule or duties at the clinic until an instructor sent an e-mail informing that he had failed the class.

Valley disabilities experts say situations such as William Kirwan’s are increasingly common as more young adults with the autism graduate from high school and enter college.

Approximately one in 88 people have some form of autism, according to the Southwest Autism Resource. While the disorder interferes with development of language and social skills, people with autism can often do well academically — if they have the right support.

“College students with autism are an emerging population in higher education,” said Garret Westlake, assistant dean of students and director of the disability resource center at Arizona State University’s Polytechnic Campus. “A challenge for students with autism is navigating the highly social college environment. Building a typical support network with faculty, staff, and peers can be a challenge for students with autism.”

Another challenge is adjusting to the lower level of services that federal law requires higher education to provide to disabled students.

The law, for instance, requires that K-12 institutions modify programs and provide extra services for students who require special education. Colleges do not have to provide the same level of accommodation.

A college would provide note taking to make a class accessible to a disabled student, for instance, but would likely not lower course requirements or program admissions criteria for the student.

Advocates, however, say they are not asking that classes be made easier. They would like more services to help students with autism better understand many of the subtleties of college life.

“Let me tell you, as the autism population ages and grows, this kind of thing is becoming more common,” said Melissa Van Hook of Gilbert, who heads the East Valley Autism Network, an affiliate of the Autism Society of America.

“Many of them are high-functioning academically but they have executive functioning needs (which interfere with the student’s ability to stay organized, meet deadlines and set priorities). They need assistance. I know several families who have struggled with this as their children have reached the college level.”

James Adams is the program chairman of ASU’s materials program in the School for Engineering of Matter, Transport, and Energy, and president of the Autism Society of Greater Phoenix.

Adams recently completed a proposal for a comprehensive support program for Valley community college students with autism and other developmental disabilities and is lining up a college and state agencies for a pilot program.

“Most instructors have little knowledge of autism, and even less about how to help individuals with autism,” Adams said.

MCC’s Warner, meanwhile, pointed out that Kirwan is still welcome back at the college. His prerequisites qualify him to enroll in many other degree-granting programs, she said.

But William said the other programs do not interest him. He is now seeking another path to becoming a vet tech, including enrolling in a private college.

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